Open the box and run your fingers through the pebbles. You may be surprised by what you hear. Close the box and open it again. Does your
experience stay the same? The way we interact with objects around us is a richly multi-sensory experience. The Pebblebox plays with our
expectations of the sounds objects make when we touch them.

Biography

Sile O'Modhrain
Sile O'Modhrain's research focuses on human-computer interaction, especially interfaces incorporating haptic and auditory feedback. She earned her
master’s degree in music technology from the University of York and her PhD from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
(CCRMA). She has also worked as a sound engineer and producer for BBC Network Radio. In 1994, she received a Fulbright scholarship, and went to Stanford to
develop a prototype haptic interface augmenting graphical user interfaces for blind computer users. Before taking up her position at SARC, Sile directed the Palpable
Machine’s group at Media Lab Europe, where her work focused on new interfaces for hand-held devices that tightly couple gestural input and touch or haptic display.

Georg Essl
Georg Essl is currently a research scientist with Deutsche Telekom Laboratories at the Technical University of Berlin. Before joining he was a postdoctoral
researcher with Media Lab Europe, European Research Partner of the MIT Media Lab working on new interfaces for natural interactions. PebbleBox, a tactile
interface for sonic performance which he co-developed with Sile O’Modhrain and Andy Brady at Media Lab Europe was invited to the Touch Me exhibition at
Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 2005. While at Media Lab Europe, he participated in the Enactive European Network of Excellence, which studies the
role of action in interaction design. Between 2002-2003 he was Assistant Professor in Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of
Florida, where he taught signal processing and synthesis of sound and digital production. He obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University
in 2002 working with Perry Cook on physical simulation of musical instruments